Microsoft changed the way we view pictures and images by introducing the Photosynth application. Little knew, at that point of time that the application had the ability to convert photographs into explorable 3D environments. Improving further, Microsoft rolled out multiple updates with December 2013 bringing one of the biggest updates to the application since its launch.
Photosynth updated
The company via the Bing blog announced that Photosynth has been updated with four new features
- Spin
- Panorama
- Walk
- Wall
All of the abovementioned features are focused on creating more realistic 3D environments which the software giant claims makes 3-D panorama look more realistic by creating a sort-of 3-D model of a photo using proprietary algorithms and then taking high-resolutions photos and layering them on top of each other.
How does PhotoSynth work
When a person uploads a set of photos to the cloud service, Photosynth technology starts looking for points in successive photos that appear to be the same object. Then, it passes the information collected to the further step called bundle adjustment. Here, a standard technique in photogrammetry, determines where in 3D space each feature is, exactly where each photo was captured or snapped, and orientation of the device at the time of capturing.
Next, a sophisticated technology that stitches together overlapping photos into an interactive panorama uses the feature points in each photo to generate 3D shapes.
Finally, the application slices and dices the images into multi-resolution pyramids for efficient access. The images are incredibly detailed.
Check out the Mount Everest Photosynth demo shot by David Brashears, a mountaineer, made up of 177 different 60-megapixel photos. Microsoft says this resolution allows the panorama to play like a video that is 30 times more detailed than an HDTV signal.
Go here to see its preview.
